Democratic National Committee

Washington, DC – DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement tonight on the final presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida:

“Tonight, the American people saw their Commander-in-Chief in President Barack Obama, and it’s more than clear that Mitt Romney is not ready to step into that role. The President didn’t just win; he dominated tonight’s debate because he was strong, clear and steady – while outlining a real vision to make our nation safer and maintain America’s leadership in the world.

“Mitt Romney, on the other hand, was incredibly unclear, uncertain and unsteady. He endorsed President Obama’s foreign policy leadership so frequently that it looked like he was auditioning to be the President’s Secretary of State. But that doesn’t change the facts – Mitt Romney was wrong on Iraq, Afghanistan, bin Laden, al Qaeda, Syria, Russia and defense spending. Tonight’s 90 minutes simply cannot undo six years of being wrong on every major foreign policy issue. At each and every turn – including several times tonight – Romney has failed the Commander-in-Chief test.

“The President said it best tonight: Mitt Romney would take us back to the foreign policy of the 1980s, the social policy of the 1950s, and the economic policy of the 1920s. Meanwhile, President Obama’s policies would keep building on the progress of the last four years – standing strong with our allies, maintaining our unbreakable alliance with partners like Israel, honoring our country’s veterans, doing critical nation building here at home, and moving America forward, not back.”

Washington,
D.C.
– DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement on
tonight’s presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New
York:

“President
Obama emerged from tonight’s debate as the clear victor. He made it clear to
the American people that he possesses the strength, decisiveness and steady hand
that our country needs – and that he has a vision to keep moving America forward
and build our economy not from the top down, but from the middle out. Voters
across the country also saw the President clearly break down the ‘sketchy deal’
that Mitt Romney has offered them: his plan to spend a whopping $5 trillion on a
tax cut for the wealthiest few, even though they don’t need it, and $2 trillion
on a defense buildup that the Pentagon has made clear it doesn’t want – without
any explanation as to how he would pay for it.

“But
President Obama didn’t just win tonight – Mitt Romney lost, and he did it by
launching one misfire after another in his attacks against the President, in
addition to missing the mark on his own proposals. When called out for the lack
of substance to his own plans, Romney was clearly flustered and took it out on
the moderator rather than actually offering a defense of his indefensible
plans. And just as he’s done at every twist and turn of his campaign, he misled
the American people – not only by refusing to tell the truth about his plan to
take away women’s access to affordable contraception or his pledge to veto the
DREAM Act, but also by lying about the President’s immediate response to the
terror attack in Benghazi. Mitt Romney showed once again that all he has to
offer are more false attacks, more empty proposals and more failed leadership –
and the American people simply deserve better than that.”

“Tonight’s debate – which Vice President Biden clearly and decisively won – showcased two very different approaches to facts, details and core convictions: Vice President Biden understands they matter, and Congressman Paul Ryan obviously does not.

“At no point tonight was Ryan able to offer a straightforward answer or specific explanation as to how he and Mitt Romney’s tax plan would be anything but devastating to the middle class, how doubling down on trickle-down will result in the creation of one single job now, how the Romney-Ryan ticket’s policy on Iran would be different from President Obama’s, or exactly what their plan is for our troops serving in Afghanistan. And women across the country watching tonight’s debate were not given any guarantee by Paul Ryan that they would continue to have control over decisions affecting their own health, their own lives, and their own bodies.

“Meanwhile, Vice President Biden demonstrated that honest answers and concrete details do make a difference – and he consistently used them tonight to underscore the fact that he’s spent his entire life fighting for America’s middle-class families. He and President Obama will proudly continue to do so in a second term, as they keep moving our country forward with an economy built from the middle out.”

“Throughout this election, voters have been offered the clearest choice they’ve seen in a generation – and tonight, the contrast could not have possibly been any greater. During tonight’s debate, President Obama laid out his vision for continuing to move America forward with an economy that grows from the middle out, not the top down. We didn’t see the same specifics from Mitt Romney, and there’s one simple reason for that: if the American people knew the details on how Romney would accomplish his plans and policies, they’d go running in the other direction. “At no point tonight did Mitt Romney say how the math adds up on his $5 trillion tax cut favoring the wealthiest few and paid for on the backs of the middle class. He wants to repeal Obamacare but refused to provide a single idea to protect hardworking families from the worst abuses of big insurance companies, and his promise to do away with Wall Street reform was not accompanied by even one new rule he’d put in place to keep America’s consumers protected. Tonight, Mitt Romney made a full-fledged commitment to double down on the same failed policies that crashed the economy and brought the middle class to its knees – and that’s the very last thing the American people can afford.”

“Today, Mitt Romney named Congressman Paul Ryan as his pick for Vice President. Congressman Ryan has been called a serious person, but he, like Mitt Romney has seriously flawed ideas for our economy that have only failed us in the past.

“Congressman Ryan laid the groundwork in Congress for Mitt Romney’s budget-busting scheme that gives an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires while punishing middle-class families with tax hikes of up to $2,000 a year. This tried and failed trickle-down economics scheme is familiar and troubling: cuts to education and other job creating initiatives, ending Medicare as we know it and saddling our seniors with the bill all to pay for more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I can say with no doubt, middle class families and seniors in my home state of Florida want no part of a Romney-Ryan economic scheme that puts millionaires ahead of Medicare and throws the middle class under the bus to give more tax breaks to the wealthy.

“The American middle-class and our seniors cannot afford to go back to the failed policies of the past, and it is unconscionable to ask them to foot the bill for the Romney-Ryan scheme. A Romney-Ryan ticket is sure to take us back and repeat the same catastrophic mistakes that got us into the mess we found ourselves in in the first place.”

“Today we celebrate the founding of our country and all the men and women throughout our history who have struggled, fought and died in pursuit of the inalienable rights that form the foundation of our nation: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Over the course of our history, we have moved ever closer to the ideal of true equality. We have expanded suffrage to African Americans and women, ensuring that all of America’s citizens can participate fully in our democracy. We have worked to ensure access to public education so that all of America’s children can enjoy equality of opportunity and fully develop the talents and skills that have made America the economic and scientific engine of the world. And we have continued to make strides so that all people are able to achieve the American Dream.

“As we gather with family and friends this Fourth of July and celebrate the great strides our country has made toward greater equality, we also remember the men and women who have given their lives so that we can enjoy the rights and freedoms afforded to us because we call America our home. I wish everyone a happy and safe Independence Day.”

Washington, D.C. – DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement tonight on the results of the recall election in Wisconsin:

“Despite the disappointing outcome of tonight’s election, there is no question that over the past year this recall effort sent a message to Scott Walker that his brand of divisive politics is offensive and wrong. Thousands of Wisconsinites mounted this effort in the face of a flood of out of state, secret and corporate special interest money– amounting to a massive $31 million war chest for Governor Walker to just $4 million on our side.

“I want to thank Mayor Barrett, our other candidates on the ballot tonight and all the passionate, dedicated individuals on the ground who held conversations with their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers about the stakes of this election. The Badger State’s progressive, grassroots tradition was on full display throughout this election, and it will remain front and center as we continue our important work to move Wisconsin forward for working families across the state as we head toward November."

"And as we turn our attention to the fall, we will not cede an inch in Wisconsin to Mitt Romney who has been behind in virtually every single recent poll and who wants to go back to the same failed policies of the past from which Wisconsin is recovering. And while we're not taking anything for granted, if Mitt Romney thinks he's going to be the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan he's got another thing coming."

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz Statement on Mitt Romney Securing the Number of Delegates Needed to Become the Republican Nominee

Washington, DC – DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement on Mitt Romney securing the number of delegates needed to become the Republican nominee:

“Tonight, after six years of trying and millions of dollars spent, and after a year of tepid support against one of the weakest fields in history, Mitt Romney has finally secured enough delegates to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. Romney may have finally gained enough delegates to become the nominee, but what’s been truly remarkable about his path to the nomination is how much damage he's left in his wake as he enters the general election.

“On women’s rights, Mitt Romney’s message has been clear: he wants to ‘get rid of’ federal funding for Planned Parenthood and refuses to say whether he would have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. When it comes to educating our kids, Romney said he didn't think smaller class sizes help students. And when it comes to jobs and the economy, Mitt Romney's economic scheme is familiar and troubling: more budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy; fewer rules for Wall Street--the same formula that benefited a few, but crashed our economy and punished the middle class.

“On what should be a good news day for Romney, he once again reminds us of his commitment to ‘Romney Economics’ and the far-right wing of his party with his pandering to Donald Trump. Mitt Romney’s lack of moral leadership is striking: he values the support of folks like Trump – no matter how extreme their views. This November, Americans will have a clear choice between an economy that is built to last and one that is built on outsourcing, loopholes, and risky financial deals that jeopardize our entire economy and threaten the security of the middle class. Those failed policies are not what Americans want, and that’s why they won’t support Mitt Romney in the fall.”

Washington, DC—DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement tonight on the results of the Republican primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, DC:

“Mitt Romney has significantly more work to do before he can become the Republican nominee, and he is doing incredible damage to himself along the way. His pandering to the extreme right wing of the Republican Party has done him great damage with women, Hispanics, and independents, all of whom will be critical in the general election. That’s because the policies he advocates would do massive damage to American families who are striving to get ahead. Just in the past week, Mitt Romney called Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a ‘hero’ – a man who has turned his back so thoroughly on middle class families, seniors and workers that voters are seeking to recall him from office. And Romney has accepted the endorsement of and praised Representative Paul Ryan, whose budget proposal – endorsed by Romney - would end Medicare as we know it so that millionaires and billionaires could get a tax break. Ryan's budget, embraced by Romney, would make arbitrary cuts to programs essential to middle-class families like education and clean energy.

“Maybe that’s why Mitt Romney and his allies have been forced to spend millions of dollars flooding the airwaves with negative ads against his competition. In Wisconsin alone, Romney and his allies outspent Rick Santorum and his allies by more than 3.5-to-1, and even after all that money the Republican party is still unenthusiastic and having trouble coalescing around their presumptive nominee. Mitt Romney has pledged his allegiance to the Tea Party and because of this, he will continue to alienate critical general election voters as the Republicans continue their slog to the nomination—which is bad for the Republican Party come November.”

Washington, D.C. – DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement tonight on the results of the Republican primary in Illinois:

“Mitt Romney and his allies may have bought their way to another victory tonight in Illinois by outspending Rick Santorum and his allies 7-to-1 in the state, but it comes with a heavy price. His pandering to his party’s extreme-right flank is hurting him among moderates, independents and women voters.

“Romney’s embrace of the extreme Tea Party agenda continued again today when he applauded the new GOP budget, which turns Medicare into a voucher program, increases health care costs to seniors by thousands of dollars, and makes arbitrary cuts to programs essential to middle-class families like education and clean energy.

“At every turn, and with each new extreme position, Mitt Romney continues to demonstrate he is out of touch with the values and issues that matter most to the middle class.”